I Love CHAOS! And YOU asked for it? (The Extropist Series – Part III)

I have often pondered over chaos and control. What is the point of chaos? Why do we have it in our lives? And how does it relate to being an Extropist? Then one day it came to me. It’s there because we ask for it to come into our lives. And when I understood this I realized that I love chaos. This new idea about chaos came when I learnt something about evolution. EVOLUTION REQUIRES CHAOS. When something in the environment is destroyed and removed from the eco-system it creates space for new beings in this system to come in and take advantage of the change. The new being evolves to then thrive in this new system structure and be more effective and powerful than before.

Changes precede chaos

This is the same thing that happens in our own lives. Something comes along and throws the stability out of our world by changing the environment. It is then up to us to best develop and evolve ourselves in order to better handle the new environment. We are forced to reassess the structure and workings of our world, tear it down and rebuild it as a new and stronger, more effective system. So you might begin to see that chaos is a good thing, but people don’t see it that way.

The Problem of Chaos

Several things make chaos seem like a bad thing. Firstly, we are hesitant to break our world down as we have become comfortable in the world that we have created. Next, rebuilding the system of our world takes energy and work. Energy that we may not have or are reticent to spend on reconstructing our world to take into consideration the change in our environment. And finally, it is the resistance that we have to the chaos and change that limits our ability to properly function and motivate ourselves to use our energy in the most effective manner to make change.

Calling Chaos

The only difference to what we see in the larger phylogenic (or species) evolution is that people can consciously create change from an ontogenic (or individual) evolution that feeds the change for the species. What this means is that we call chaos into our lives so that we can evolve our individual system. That’s right! You literally ask for chaos to come in and mess up your world. WE CREATE CHAOS! Chaos is simply disordered energy. We need more energy to increase the size of our life and perpetuate our evolution. But this energy wont just come on a platter as a ready to plug-in battery pack. Sadly, that’s not how it works, nor would it be fun if we didn’t have to solve how to evolve.

When chaos enters into our lives, there is a greater overall amount of energy now in our lives. However this disorder is causing the current system to become inefficient, as it has not been calibrated to handle the new energy. This is why we often feel unstable and out of control with it’s introduction and so we often have to completely change the whole system in order to handle the new incoming energy. It is this reordering that causes the system to be more evolved as it has learnt how to better work with the new energy in the system. This can then have a trickle down effect for the whole species because then when another person sees how this new way of being is more advantageous they may choose to follow the new system. Then another. And another until critical mass is reached and there are more people using the more advanced system than the old. So you see that chaos might actually be a good thing for not only you, but everyone.

Karmic Chaos

But you may ask “how can we call chaos into our lives? And why would we?” Well, I’m certainly not advocating forcing chaos into your life by doing something dangerous such as jumping off a cliff, but rather begin to listen to the natural ebb and flow of life. Chaos is partially karmic, as it is a consequence that mirrors the amount of energy that you have put into your life. You are actually asking for the injection of new energy because you have used up all your energy in the system and now you are getting an equivalent amount of energy back to work with. Its kind of like pushing the pendulum. When you push it away from you, you get the fruits of the upswing, but slowly it reaches the top and eventually stops moving. So we need more energy to bring into the system to continue the growth and that comes back to us in the form of chaos. It is this energy from the back swing that you get to work with to evolve the system.

With each swing you get stronger and so you can push the pendulum farther. This in turn creates a greater experience and use of the energy in your life. A bigger swing also brings back more chaos into your life. You, however, are now stronger, wiser and more able to handle the introduction of greater chaos into your life. Some people resist and deny the chaos in their lives while others embrace it. There is a great saying, “Small life, small problems. Big life, big problems.” But know this: You can only bring into your life as much chaos as you are able to handle and never more. This is a very important point. This is because you can always handle the force of the return swing because you created the first amount of energy. Therefore the only time chaos can overwhelm you is if you feed into the old way of thinking and tell yourself that chaos is a bad thing due to one of the three points earlier. This will limit your ability to work with the new energy, to evolve the system and create a more amazing life.

So you can see that chaos is intrinsic to creating anything in our lives. Progress requires chaos. We must not be afraid of chaos, but understand it as a natural part of the growth process in life. When you feel the all too familiar feeling of change in the air, that something is happening that is out of your control, trust ultimately that you can handle it. You don’t need comfort and security all the time if you know things will turn out for the best. When you can trust in life and the process of it, you will be able to control the chaos. You can KNOW this because you called for chaos to come into your life. Instead of shying away from the small problems and living a small life, embrace the big problems when they come so that you can live the biggest life you can dream of.

Chaos gives birth to a divine star

The Dynamic Systems of Extropy (The Extropist Series – Part II)

When we want to make a change in our lives, we know as extropists that we must create a system of structured energy in order to move into an experience that better serves us. This energy injection has many different names. In science it is called “work”. It is this work that we give to a situation that helps raise the integrity of the situation by overcoming conflict and creating resolve.

This work however requires a balance of energy within the system dynamics otherwise there can be a system failure because the system is being under or overwhelmed by the amount of energy inserted into it. Every part of our lives, whether it be relationships, career, health, or anything else, is impacted by system dynamics. However, it requires an awareness of the kinds of systems that you are working with rather than assuming that all systems operate under the same specifications. Do not assume, but get in tune.

Keep up the energy

It is important to go through how the systems in our lives can become imbalanced and what that can lead to. This allows us to be aware of each dynamic in order that you can then understand where you may need to tweak the energy in order to bring it back into balance.

Sometimes you can overwork the system by putting too much work into it. This may apply to relationships when one person is giving too much to the system and therefore expecting something more than the other person can give back in return. Consider these two people are two elements giving energy to create the “relationship” system. With an imbalance of energy, this could cause person A (the input) to blow a fuse from taking more energy that it can handle or cause person B (the contributor) to burn out from working too hard and not getting enough energy/ output back to continue with or validate their work.

To further explain this, imagine that person (B) likes person (A) a lot and this person (A) is hesitant to get too involved. They are limiting the flow of energy, whether it’s because they have restricted the flow of energy they allow into their experience from person (B) or because they have been hurt previously and they have a damaged emotional structure to process the attention and energy being given to them. This person (A) receiving the energy will be hesitant to take the energy, thus limit the flow and will only give back the energy they are willing to receive.

great relationships learn how to treasure the differences

Otherwise, if person A, takes on more energy that they can handle it can also damage the system as they are taking in more energy than they are able to handle. This will cause person (A)’s fuse to blow and they may either derail in the relationship or elsewhere in their system (career, health) depending on how the composition of the overall structural integrity of their psyche is and where their weak points may be.

Additionally, the force of energy from person B could be so great that it begins to back up and cause A to not be able to take in any of the energy offered to them at all. This could frustrate and be very hurtful to person B, because B is trying to create a greater system by forcing energy into the new structure. Without reciprocation from person A, person B is doing a lot of work and not getting a reciprocal output. As B’s energy begins to deplete, due to the failure of the work to get the desired result, this may create feelings that invalidate person B as they are not able to maintain the system and again results in a system collapse.

These types of energy dynamics exist in any system whether it’s your work or your physical body. You can be overworked and become burnt out or you can try to give too much and destroy the connections that you have built by giving too much to the system. It is important to constantly evaluate the system be aware and give and take in order to work with what the system can handle. Often people create an ideal of what they think the system is and try to force the system into that place rather than allow the system to grow into that place. Be aware of what and who you are working with. Remain conscious and try not to force your beliefs and ideals on people through the energy and work that you give because this will cause your energy to be depleted and no work to get done. Change comes from the inside, and therefore we must allow people and ourselves the room to move and grow. Otherwise the system will collapse under the rigidity of the perceived ideal structure rather than allowing the actuality of the more fluid organic structures to work with what we hope to create. To create an ever better and evolved system.